Hidekaz Himaruya

Hidekaz Himaruya (日丸屋 秀和 Himaruya Hidekaz, born May 8, 1985, in Koriyama, Fukushima) is the creator of the series Hetalia: Axis Powers (originally titled Axis Powers Hetalia in the webcomic run).

Himaruya started the original Hetalia webcomic while he was attending Parsons School Of Design in New York City and continues the series in the present. He is currently an illustration major and makes posts about his day-to-day life on his blog the Bamboo Thicket, along with the latest character designs and sketches.

Besides Hetalia, his website Kitayume (which started on June 19, 2003) showcases his other manga projects and artwork. His latest series, Chibi-san Date, currently runs in the magazine Comic Birz by Gentosha Comics (which also published the printed versions of the Hetalia manga).

Himaruya lived in New York from late 2006 until some point in early 2009, when he moved back to Japan following the release of the Hetalia anime and his contract with Comic Birz.

In the earlier days of the Kitayume site (2003-2007), he used the name Kazuyoshi Himaruya (日丸屋 和良 Himaruya Kazuyoshi), which most notably appears in the credits of the Gakuen Hetalia demo.

Estonia's character design is based on his appearance, although his hair and eye color is different.

On his blog and update logs from the archived versions of Kitayume, Himaruya mentions that he is a fan of South Park and Happy Tree Friends. In some instances, he has referenced the song Let's Fighting Love (from the South Park episode Good Times With Weapons) by using the phrase and replacing "Fighting" with another word of his choice, such as: "Let's Flying Pan-ing Love" and "Let's Englanding Love".

He allows the usage of images from his site, show, and blog as long as no profit is involved, and encourages fans to create their own original characters, fan videos (MADs), or cosplay inspired by his works, though he actively discourages fans from copying CDs. Selling any of the downloadable site games for profit is also prohibited.

He's admitted to having a rather questionable naming sense, and encouraged the fans to call the gender flipped nations by whichever names they chose to.